Wudy15

Has any of you UK based FT'ers bought the raffle tickets for the Hilton in the Community bash in Glasgow at the end of August?

There are some cracking prizes of Hilton weekends and vacations.

Included are a trip to Chicago staying at the Drake and a suite at the Waldorf in London both including flights.

Tickets are a pound a pop and good luck to any of you who has bought them!!

Cheers

Alan

NJUPINTHEAIR

I am planning a road trip to visit these properties.

Can anyone provide information re the current state of the rooms and facilities for these properties, including, the presence of a Conceirge Lounge and whether it restricts acess to Gold members and if it is open on weekends, as well as car parking and the in house Living Well health club and accompanying pool?

I understand that the Brighton Metropole is the nicer of the two Hiltons in Brighton and that it seems to have undergone a very recent rennovation.

In addition, it seems that the Bath City may have undergone one last year, as well, but I am not so sure that it made much of a difference.

As between the Hilton Southhampton and the Hilton Portsmouth, the scant amount of information on these -- as well as those above -- seems to indicate that the Southampton property is the better of the two, but by how much, I am not so sure.

Finally, the Cardiff property appears to be quite nice from the little information I have read about it. Any updates for this property?

Thanks so much!

cjd

Have stayed at Cardiff and Bath Hiltons, but only on weekdays.

Cardiff is in my opinion one of the best Hiltons in the UK. It is in a great location, very central, overlooking Cardiff Castle and almost right beside the City Centre shops. I have only stayed there as Diamond and have always been upgraded to one of the two the Executive floors, where the rooms are all a good size with huge bathrooms with seperate walk-in shower as well as baths. Very important to me, even in the UK, is that all the rooms have air conditioning. There is a small but pleasant Executive lounge on the top executive floor, which I think will also be open at weekends. They serve continental breakfast and evening refrshments and drinks. There is a good-sized pool as well as a small gym, sauna and steam room. They do not have self parking, but valet parking is available at £10 per day.

Bath Hilton is also very centrally located and great for exploring this historic city. They do not have an Executive lounge as far as I know. Was upgraded to a Club Room as Diamond, but rooms are very small. Never sure what a Club room is! Only difference seems to be that they give you a robe, slippers and some fruit. They have a small pool and gym. There is a nice restaurant overlooking the river. There is a large public car park underneath the hotel and hotel guests get a discounted rate of £6 per day, payable at the hotel. I would imagine that at weekends this car park will be very busy and there may be long waiting times to get back in during the day. The main disadvantage is that the rooms do not have any air conditioning. In the winter with the radiators turned off, still had to sleep with the window open.

Try hilton.co.uk as they sometimes have cheaper rates than hilton.com. I usually try ringing the hotel direct to see what rates they can offer.

Hope this info helps.

Chris

NJUPINTHEAIR

Dear Chris,

Thank you very much! I, too, am usually in need of A/C, as well, and that is one of the reasons the Cardiff jumped out at me.

I plan on spending my HHonors points instead of GBP, in part due to the bad exchange rate of the $.

Also, when booking, I was guaranteed a confirmed King N/S room, apparently both a rarity when booking online or via the phone.

Many thanks again for the report.

The only other Hiltons that appear to have A/C in that region outside of London are both the Swindon and Coventry properties. But, from the info already on this board in the past, they appear not to provide what they advertise, and they seem to be bad choices, as well -- unless others have a contrary opinion?

ottofocus

Stayed at the Bath Hilton twice this year. Writer is right, no Executive Floor but breakfast coupons offered for my Hilton Gold with fruit and a small box of choclates as well. Good location, walked to hotel from R.R. station and easy for city walk-about.

Resturant above average for a typical hotel resturant.......

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanks very much Otto!

Question: what months were you there and did you feel that you needed A/C?

Also, what type of bed did they provide you? I am travelling with my wife.

Thanks much!

Raffles

Having spent four years in Bath at University, I've got to say that a/c is really not an issue! It may get a little warm from mid-July to end-August, but apart from that your main concern is likely to be where you left your umbrella. Oh, and avoiding all the US and American tourists.

The Hilton in Bath is as ugly a scar on the face of the town as you could imagine - you'll have seen uglier hotels, but possibly none which are so poor in comparison to the other buildings around them. It is exceptionally convenient, however, for absolutely everything.

ottofocus

We were there in March and May. Obviously not a/c months so can not comment. I recall window units may have included a/c but not sure. Check your weather for the areas on weather.com. You can get some fairly reliable advance forecasts....

Previous writer is correct---Hilton-Bath is not an architectual masterpiece! BTW our first stay there was in 1984 when it was a Hilton National.

We had two (twin) doubles.

Bath is a "tourist" town with tour coaches galore. It is also a holiday (vacation) destination for the Brits so it can be a very busy place in season. There are two "off and on" tour bus lines running in town. Stops about 2-3 blocks from the hotel. Ask at the hotel desk. A cheap way to get about and learn about Bath and environs.

decemmie

I stay in the Hilton Swindon quite regularly and can offer the following:

Very handy for the M4 motorway. About 30 seconds off Junction 16.

Pricewise, they're a bit flukey. The lowest rate I've seen online for ages is the BB rate, which is £68 bed & breakfast for up to 2 people. If you're thinking about spending points, you might want to check if that rate is available first as IMO £68 is better value than the points it would cost.

They have an Executive Level on the 3rd floor but there is no difference at all to the rooms on the other floors, just a brass plaque on the door saying "Club Room" (I think). What you want to aim for if you're after an upgrade is a "Deluxe" room in the "Cotswold Wing" - same size room but nicer furnishings & bedding, as well as better showers (you get both overhead & handheld options). Ideally, whatever room you get, you want to be "facing in" to the little courtyard as some of the "facing out" rooms get a little bit of noise from the nearby M4 motorway. You'll have a much better chance of an upgrade if you are there 1-2 nights, rather than all week.

AFAIK there is no VIP Lounge.

The parking is free & ample - I've only once in over 80 nights (yes really) had to drive all the way through it once and then a second time to get a spot.

They do have air conditioning which I often don't use as it's not a particularly hot hotel - if I'm in a "facing in" room, I will usually just leave the window open for some fresh air.

The breakfast is fine, nothing special when you've eaten it 80 times (!!!) but OK. I almost always stay on rates that include breakfast so I don't know if they are good on offering free breakfast based on status. On a few occasions when I have ended up with a rate not including breakfast, I haven't been offered it at check-in (nor have I asked), but the waitstaff in the morning have given it to me free - however I get the sense that that's coz I'm me, rather than because I'm a Diamond .

Um, what else ... I think they brought in a new theory on amenities for Diamonds (don't know about Golds, etc) about 6-8 weeks ago. Since then, I often get an amenity in my room, usually consisting of one tiny-size bottle of Merlot, a mini canister of Pringles crisps, a jar of peanuts or jellybeans, and two small bottles of water. On stays of more than one night, the cleaner will usually renew the amenity in full every day. However, this is a bit hit or miss - I don't always get the amenity, maybe about 75% of the time. The irregularity is not something I have complained/asked about as I don't consume it anyway - it just gets taken into the office to bribe engineers with

AFAIK only the Cotswold Wing rooms have a stocked minibar in - all the standard rooms have a fridge, but it's empty. Also only the Cotswold Wing rooms have a iron & ironing board in as standard, so if you're going to need one and you're in a standard room, you might want to give reception a call in advance before you're running 10 minutes late and it's an emergency.

There's a mini-shopping centre about 5 minutes drive away where there is a big grocery store (ASDA - Walmart owned chain, for the Americans' reference!), a pharmacy, a McDonald's, a couple of other stores, and most importantly the cheapest petrol for many miles around. It's just off Whitehill Way and the reception staff at the hotel can give you a map.

The restaurant is not what I would call great for evening meals. They normally have a carvery on, and almost everything is heat-lamped to death. It's not hard to drive a little way and find something better in Swindon Town itself. The "Rendezvous" Chinese restaurant is particularly good and has a £15 all you can eat style offer Mon-Wed.

Any other questions on the Hilton Swindon, just post them up and I'll see if I can answer.

decemmie

decemmie

One last thing to add ...

I have stayed at the Hilton Bath City as well, on one memorable occasion when there was not a single hotel room available in Swindon at any hotel!

Overall :

If you are looking for a room to spend the night in and a quick breakfast before you head off in your car along the motorway, I would vote for the Hilton Swindon. Especially if it's hot and you really want that aircon!

If you are looking to have a drink in the hotel bar, explore a city, have some dinner in town, stroll around until late, have another few drinks, wobble back to the hotel, then the Hilton Bath City would be a better choice given a) it's very central, walking distance from the centre of Bath and b) Bath is much nicer than Swindon.

That's all! decemmie

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanks all for the great information!!

Now, is there anyone with information with respect to the Southampton and Brighton Metropole properties??

Or, any additional info with respect to the ones already named?

Thank you!!

NickW

If it has, it is not evident. The Hilton in Bath is an inferior hotel. As other have mentioned, no a/c. If you were here for the past few weeks, you would definitely be rueing that fact. Last time I was there, as a Gold I was 'upgraded' to a Plaza room. No minibar either. Quality of the furnishings is pretty inferior. And it's ludicrously overpriced.

You can Priceline the Bath Spa hotel. This is a genuine five-star hotel of some elegance in a beautiful location; as opposed to a cheesy three-ish stars for the Hilton, which is perched carbuncle-like next to a shopping centre ... last time I did that, I ended up paying only £10 or maybe £15 more per night for the Bath Spa and got a fantastic full breakfast into the deal, which I ate sitting outside on their verandah.

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanks, Nick W!

I am currently thinking of using Cardiff as a base not only for Wales, but also for such cities as Bath, should I visit it. In that way, I don't have to worry about A/C or a King size bed.

MAN Flyer

Cardiff is quite handy for Bath, with good rail and road connections. I agree with the above comments re Cardiff Hilton, great Hotel in a great City ^ .

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanks Man Flyer!

With a gauaranteed King N/S with A/C and potential for an U/G to an Executive Floor with a Lounge, that in itself ensures that I will choose Cardiff over Bath. With the added bonus of positive reviews for Cardiff and lukewarm at best re Bath, Cardiff, it is!

Thanks for the info.

Now, anyone have any knowledge about Southampton, Brighton Metropole and/or Dartford Bridge?

I have read the scant info re the latter other than that it is not suitable for use as a base to travel to London, but I will not being using it for that purpose. Rather, I plan to use it as an overnight station for travel to Churchill's house at Charwell (20 miles away), as well as a trip up to see the Aviation musuem at Duxford, near Cambridge.

Although the website states that they have Double and Twins only available, I have confirmed via the web booking rewards engine that I have been given a King N/S. Also, it has free parking. Moreover, it only costs 20,000 HHonors points per night.

Is this an acceptable choice given the rationale for my use of the property?

Thanks very much for your input!